Steelers Name Roethlisberger & Keisel As Team Captains

The Pittsburgh Steelers announced their team captains for the upcoming 2012 season on Monday and as expected they are quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the offense, and defensive end Brett Keisel for defense. No special teams captain was named.

Roethlisberger is entering his 9th season in Pittsburgh and is now one of the elder statesmen on offense since wide receiver Hines Ward was released this past offseason. The quarterback is expecting his first child this year and received his college degree from his Alma Mater this past offseason. This is the 4th year that Ben has been a captain or a co-captain.

Keisel, 33, was originally drafted by the Steelers in the 7th round of the 2002 draft and will take over as defensive team captain for linebacker James Farrior, who was released this past offseason.

Why does the article state this is his 4th year in a row that Ben is a captain or co-captain? The fact that he was not voted captain after his issues in 2010 and the return of his captain-ship last year were both fairly big stories.

SteelSpine

We missed Keisel when he was out with injuries during last part of last season, I was surprised what a big dropoff it was on the line without him.

Sorry ahead-of-time some fans are gonna hate this next thing I noticed this preseason tho: This preseason I kept noticing #99 not being able to catch people running around him. There were a few times around the line & a coupla yards downfield, #99 had the angle on the guy with the ball, chasing from a few feet to the side of the ballcarrier, but ball-carrier then pulled away stretched that gap to where I assumed that was not Keisel under that 99 jersey, that made me assume it was instead camp body(ies), since duplicate numbers get issued during camps), because Keisel used to have very above-average speed for a 3-4 DE. I still wanna believe #99 this preseason was someone other than Keisel, I’m still a Keisel fan, plus I know DEs in a 3-4 dont need speed.